IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v336y2023ics0277953623006093.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

No heat, no eat: (Dis)entangling insecurities and their implications for health and well-being

Author

Listed:
  • Shapira, Stav
  • Teschner, Naama

Abstract

This study explores the associations between energy poverty, food insecurity, and a set of outcomes—including the self-reported burden of chronic illness, physical disabilities, and mental health—among social-aid recipients across Israel. We highlight the socio-demographic characteristics and housing conditions of energy-poor households and analyze the association between energy poverty and health and well-being using multivariate regression models. Of 1390 aid-recipient respondents, more than 85% met the criteria for living in an energy-poor household, and almost all of them also struggled with food insecurity and were raised in poor households as children. In addition, the severity of energy poverty was positively and significantly associated with the occurrence of diabetes, hypertension, and mental illness, and, as compared with energy-secure households, severely energy-poor households were more prone to forgo acquiring prescription medications, medical aid, or required health treatments due to financial hardships. These findings highlight the nuanced negotiation over necessities that aid-supported households make; despite being at greater risk of being sick, energy-poor households are more likely to forgo buying medicines and seeking healthcare so as to pay the electricity bills. Hidden energy poverty, coupled with what might be hidden morbidity, may have significant implications for healthcare systems, and a climate-sensitive health policy at both the municipal and national levels is required to strengthen resilience among low-income households.

Suggested Citation

  • Shapira, Stav & Teschner, Naama, 2023. "No heat, no eat: (Dis)entangling insecurities and their implications for health and well-being," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 336(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:336:y:2023:i:c:s0277953623006093
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116252
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953623006093
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116252?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alabid, Jamal & Bennadji, Amar & Seddiki, Mohammed, 2022. "A review on the energy retrofit policies and improvements of the UK existing buildings, challenges and benefits," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    2. Davillas, Apostolos & Burlinson, Andrew & Liu, Hui-Hsuan, 2022. "Getting warmer: Fuel poverty, objective and subjective health and well-being," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    3. Drescher, Katharina & Janzen, Benedikt, 2021. "Determinants, persistence, and dynamics of energy poverty: An empirical assessment using German household survey data," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    4. Shuchen Cong & Destenie Nock & Yueming Lucy Qiu & Bo Xing, 2022. "Unveiling hidden energy poverty using the energy equity gap," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    5. Das, Runa R. & Martiskainen, Mari & Bertrand, Lindsey M. & MacArthur, Julie L., 2022. "A review and analysis of initiatives addressing energy poverty and vulnerability in Ontario, Canada," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    6. Jun Yang & Maigeng Zhou & Zhoupeng Ren & Mengmeng Li & Boguang Wang & De Li Liu & Chun-Quan Ou & Peng Yin & Jimin Sun & Shilu Tong & Hao Wang & Chunlin Zhang & Jinfeng Wang & Yuming Guo & Qiyong Liu, 2021. "Projecting heat-related excess mortality under climate change scenarios in China," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-11, December.
    7. Husnain, Muhammad Iftikhar ul & Nasrullah, Nasrullah & Khan, Muhammad Aamir & Banerjee, Suvajit, 2021. "Scrutiny of income related drivers of energy poverty: A global perspective," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    8. Michelle Graff & Sanya Carley, 2020. "COVID-19 assistance needs to target energy insecurity," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 5(5), pages 352-354, May.
    9. Wang, Shangrui & Cao, Anran & Wang, Guohua & Xiao, Yiming, 2022. "The Impact of energy poverty on the digital divide: The mediating effect of depression and Internet perception," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    10. Betto, Frida & Garengo, Patrizia & Lorenzoni, Arturo, 2020. "A new measure of Italian hidden energy poverty," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    11. Recalde, Martina & Peralta, Andrés & Oliveras, Laura & Tirado-Herrero, Sergio & Borrell, Carme & Palència, Laia & Gotsens, Mercè & Artazcoz, Lucia & Marí-Dell’Olmo, Marc, 2019. "Structural energy poverty vulnerability and excess winter mortality in the European Union: Exploring the association between structural determinants and health," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    12. Diana Hernández & Stephen Bird, 2010. "Energy Burden and the Need for Integrated Low‐Income Housing and Energy Policy," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 2(4), pages 5-25, November.
    13. Burlinson, Andrew & Davillas, Apostolos & Law, Cherry, 2022. "Pay (for it) as you go: Prepaid energy meters and the heat-or-eat dilemma," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 315(C).
    14. Françoise Bartiaux & Rosie Day & Willy Lahaye, 2021. "Energy Poverty as a Restriction of Multiple Capabilities: A Systemic Approach for Belgium," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(2), pages 270-291, April.
    15. Laura Oliveras & Carme Borrell & Irene González-Pijuan & Mercè Gotsens & María José López & Laia Palència & Lucía Artazcoz & Marc Marí-Dell’Olmo, 2021. "The Association of Energy Poverty with Health and Wellbeing in Children in a Mediterranean City," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(11), pages 1-11, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Burlinson, Andrew & Davillas, Apostolos & Law, Cherry, 2022. "Pay (for it) as you go: Prepaid energy meters and the heat-or-eat dilemma," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 315(C).
    2. Davillas, Apostolos & Burlinson, Andrew & Liu, Hui-Hsuan, 2022. "Getting warmer: Fuel poverty, objective and subjective health and well-being," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ackermann, Klaus & Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa & Smyth, Russell, 2023. "High-speed internet access and energy poverty," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(PB).
    2. Huang, Yatao & Jiao, Wenxian & Wang, Kang & Li, Erling & Yan, Yutong & Chen, Jingyang & Guo, Xuanxuan, 2022. "Examining the multidimensional energy poverty trap and its determinants: An empirical analysis at household and community levels in six provinces of China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    3. Lan, Jing & Khan, Sufyan Ullah & Sadiq, Muhammad & Chien, Fengsheng & Baloch, Zulfiqar Ali, 2022. "Evaluating energy poverty and its effects using multi-dimensional based DEA-like mathematical composite indicator approach: Findings from Asia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    4. Huang, Luling & Nock, Destenie & Cong, Shuchen & Qiu, Yueming (Lucy), 2023. "Inequalities across cooling and heating in households: Energy equity gaps," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    5. Ioanna Kyprianou & Despina Serghides & Harriet Thomson & Salvatore Carlucci, 2023. "Learning from the Past: The Impacts of Economic Crises on Energy Poverty Mortality and Rural Vulnerability," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-13, July.
    6. Muhammad Shafiullah & Zhilun Jiao & Muhammad Shahbaz & Kangyin Dong, 2023. "Examining energy poverty in Chinese households: An Engel curve approach," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(1), pages 149-184, March.
    7. Shahzad, Umer & Gupta, Mansi & Sharma, Gagan Deep & Rao, Amar & Chopra, Ritika, 2022. "Resolving energy poverty for social change: Research directions and agenda," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    8. Ren, Zhiyuan & Zhu, Yuhan & Jin, Canyang & Xu, Aiting, 2023. "Social capital and energy poverty: Empirical evidence from China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    9. Pedro Macedo & Mara Madaleno & Victor Moutinho, 2022. "A New Composite Indicator for Assessing Energy Poverty Using Normalized Entropy," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 163(3), pages 1139-1163, October.
    10. Spandagos, Constantine & Tovar Reaños, Miguel & Lynch, Muireann Á, 2023. "Energy poverty prediction and effective targeting for just transitions with machine learning," Papers WP762, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    11. Pezalla, Simon & Obringer, Renee, 2023. "Evaluating the household-level climate-electricity nexus across three cities through statistical learning techniques," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    12. Lilia Karpinska & Sławomir Śmiech, 2021. "Escaping Energy Poverty: A Comparative Analysis of 17 European Countries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-16, September.
    13. Hearn, Adam X., 2022. "Positive energy district stakeholder perceptions and measures for energy vulnerability mitigation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 322(C).
    14. Dogan, Eyup & Madaleno, Mara & Taskin, Dilvin, 2021. "Which households are more energy vulnerable? Energy poverty and financial inclusion in Turkey," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    15. Lucie Middlemiss, 2022. "Who is vulnerable to energy poverty in the Global North, and what is their experience?," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(6), November.
    16. Wang, Wei & Xiao, Weiwei & Bai, Caiquan, 2022. "Can renewable energy technology innovation alleviate energy poverty? Perspective from the marketization level," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    17. Indre Siksnelyte-Butkiene, 2021. "A Systematic Literature Review of Indices for Energy Poverty Assessment: A Household Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-27, September.
    18. Karpinska, Lilia & Śmiech, Sławomir, 2021. "Breaking the cycle of energy poverty. Will Poland make it?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    19. Koomson, Isaac & Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa, 2022. "Employment precarity and energy poverty in post-apartheid South Africa: Exploring the racial and ethnic dimensions," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    20. Antunes, Micaela & Teotónio, Carla & Quintal, Carlota & Martins, Rita, 2023. "Energy affordability across and within 26 European countries: Insights into the prevalence and depth of problems using microeconomic data," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(PA).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:336:y:2023:i:c:s0277953623006093. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.